While the court was in recesses for lunch, Sarah Kustok was spotted speaking with Rick Beuke, her father’s lead defense attorney, in the courthouse cafeteria. She is not permitted in the courtroom, because she is expected to be called as a witness. She left the courthouse shortly after 3 p.m., when the defense opted instead to open its case with blood spatter expert Paul Kish.

Allan Kustok, 63, is charged with shooting his wife Anita “Jeanie” Kustok in the face while she lay in bed at the couple’s sprawling Orland Park home on Sept. 29, 2010.

After attending pre-trial hearings, Sarah Kustok was absent from hearings over the ensuing two weeks — until now.

The defense opened its case after concluding a grueling cross-examination of the star prosecution witness, Oregon-based crime scene recreation expert Rod Englert. The defense cross examination of Englert stretched across three days.

Before prosecutors rested their case, jurors were shown Allan Kustok’s bloody T-shirt, as well as the T-shirt Englert used in his recreation of the murder scene. The real and fake blood spots did not match up, which the defense contends is evidence that Englert’s work was sloppy, and that his conclusion that someone else shot Jeanie Kustok was suspect.

Asked about the differences in the T-shirts in court, Englert said, “At least they’re on the front” of the T-shirt, which prompted jurors to laugh.

The defense then opened with its own blood spatter expert, Paul Kish, who said where Englert found blood spray, he found transfer stains that don’t rule out suicide.

Sarah Kustok now covers the Brooklyn Nets for the YES Network. Her brother Zak, a former Northwestern University quarterback, told the Sun-Times that he only attended the trial to lend moral support to his wife, who testified for the prosecution.

Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts is a native of Wilmette who has worked in Chicago media for all but four years of a career dating back to 1974.
He attended St. Francis Xavier Elementary School and Loyola Academy in Wilmette, before discovering radio while getting his...